1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair dryer with a minus ion generator, which has the capability of simultaneously providing a cold air flow with minus ions and a hot air flow to efficiently perform hair styling as well as hair treatment.
2. Disclosure of the Prior Art
In the past, it is said that an air flow with minus ions is effective to perform hair styling, while keeping the moisture content of hair. Therefore, various kinds of hair dryers with minus ion generator have been proposed.
For example, Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3086680 discloses a hair dryer 1M with a minus ion generator 4M, as shown in FIG. 17. This dryer includes a tubular housing 10M, in which an air flow channel 60M is defined, so that air sucked from an air inlet 12M provided at one end of the housing is ejected from an air outlet 11M provided at the other end thereof. In the air-flow channel 60M of the housing 10M, a fan 2M, heater 3M, and the minus ion generator 4M are disposed. In addition, the hair dryer has a grip 15M projecting downwardly from the housing 10M, in which electric circuits for the heater and the fan are accommodated.
When a power switch 6M provided on the grip 15M is turned on, electric power is supplied to the fan 2M, heater 3M, and the minus ion generator 4M. The air is sucked into the housing 10M from the air inlet 12M by the fan 2M, and then sent to the downstream side of the air flow channel 60M. Subsequently, the air is heated by the heater 3M in the air flow channel, and the heated air is mixed with minus ions generated by the minus ion generator 4M. Thus, the hot air flow with minus ions is ejected from the air outlet 11M.
In addition, PCT International Publication No. WO02/51282 A1 discloses a hair dryer 1N having the capability of individually providing a hot air flow and minus ions from different outlets, as shown in FIG. 18. This hair dryer 1N has a hollow housing 10N with an air inlet 12N and an air outlet 11N, and an air flow channel 60N formed therebetween, in which a fan 2N and a heater 3N are disposed. The air sucked in the housing by the fan 2N is heated by the heater 3N, and then ejected from the air outlet 11N. The housing 10N also has an ion-flow channel 81N having a minus ion generator 4N therein and separated from the air flow channel 60N, and an ion outlet 80N formed at a different position from the air outlet 12N to eject minus ions generated by the minus ion generator 4N.
According to the hair dryer described above, since the minus ions supplied from the ion outlet 80N join with the hot air flow provided from the air outlet 11N at outside of the housing 10N. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently spray the hot air with minus ions to the user's hair and perform hair styling.
By the way, the hot air flow is useful to efficiently dry wet hair, but hair styling of the dried hair is generally hard to carry out, so that there is a case that a hair style congenial to the user's taste is not obtained. In such a case, the use of minus ions is particularly useful to obtain moist and smooth hair that is well suited to perform the hair styling. However, since these hair dryers mix the minus ions with the hot air flow, there is still plenty of room for improvement with respect to minus-ion effects on hair. That is, since each of the minus ions is a minute cluster of water molecules in the air coupled with negatively charged oxygen, the minus ions become easier to evaporate in the hot air flow. In other words, as the temperature of minus ions increases, an absorption amount of the minus ions on hair decreases. As a result, it becomes difficult to efficiently perform hair styling, while maintaining the moist and smooth hair.
To improve this problem, for example, it is proposed that after wet hair is dried by use of the hot air flow, the heater is turned off to perform the hair styling by use of the cold air flow with minus ions. However, in this case, it will take an extended time period to finish the hair styling.